She hadn’t noticed a change in him before this happened, but some of his co-workers told her afterwards they had.

“The stigma is possibly the biggest barrier that people have in asking for help or mentioning they may be thinking of suicide,” she said. “And that stigma has to be removed.”

Yesterday, the province released a report titled Suicide and Attempted Suicide in Nova Scotia. Using data gathered between 1995 and 2004, the report describes conditions surrounding suicide and attempted suicide in the province.

Julian Young, who works for the province’s health promotion and protection department, called the report a “baseline” of information about suicide.